The present invention relates to a method of producing fermented sword beans, and more particularly to a quick and economical method for preparing fermented sword bean solution.
India is the origin of the sword bean. However, the sword bean is also grown in Taiwan and some areas in China. In Taiwan, the sword bean was rarely taken as food. People usually use its creeping tendrils to decorate fences. According to some literatures, except being served as daily dish among a very small number of Taiwanese indigenes who fry green pods of sword beans and shredded meat together, the sword bean is rarely used as food. There are also records that some people in Taiwan use the seeds, the skin of seeds, and the roots of the sword bean plant as medicine for improving circulation, reducing inflammation, killing pain, etc. Being involved in Pacific War during World War II, people in Taiwan encountered serious shortage of food and many edible wild plants were taken as food at that time. Records indicate that mashed sword bean and sword bean jelly had been one of the common foods at that time.
The scientific name of sword bean is Canavalia gladiata (Jacq.) DC. There is another type of sword bean that is also classified as a herbaceous plant and has the scientific name of Canavalia ensiformis (L.) DC. The seeds of these two types of sword bean have extremely close appearance and are pharmacologically similar to one another. The sword bean contains urea enzyme, blood cell agglutinin, canavanine, starch, protein, fat, etc. The green bean of sword bean contains Canavalia glibberellin I & II. The other type of sword bean, that is, the Canavalia ensiformis (L.) DC, is important for many types of globulin it contains, including the most important Concanavalin A.
In a report entitled "The Transformed Cells: Unlocking the Mysteries of Cancer" made by Steven A. Rosenberg, it is indicated that lymph cells around cancer tissue will have memory ability, and therefore, when they meet the cancer tissue, the lymph cells will easily access and destroy the cancer tissue to suppress the growth and development of the cancer tissue and even reduce the size of tumor, and that proper amount of Lectin can speed up the division of killer cells. There are British scholars suggesting hypodermic injection of Lectin and it is found such injection has pretty good effect on suppressing tumor cells. However, the injection area tends to inflame, and continuous injection will cause swelling and even ulcer on the skin that is uneasy to heal.
In 1987, another scholar found from laboratory experiments that Lectin orally taken into human body will not be completely decomposed into amino acid. To the contrary, most part of the orally taken Lectin quickly reaches the digestive tract and combines with lymph cells. This is the exact mechanism making the Lectin effective. The sword bean is rich in Con A that is a type of Lectin and has special effect on cancer prevention. Lectin is one kind of protein and will lose its effectiveness in anti-cancer when it is heated. Therefore, it is stressed in prior study that the sword bean is pharmacologically useful only when it is orally taken before being cooked. A conventional method of preparing the sword bean for medical use includes the steps of grinding the sword beans and extracting juice from the ground sword beans, purifying the extracted juice of sword beans through a series of processes to extract Con A from the juice, and making troches from the extracted Con A. The extraction must be proceeded completely at a temperature below 0.degree. C., or the purified Con A will lose its activity.